[metadat]

> After spending time on Apple’s M1/M2 Macs (coming from a large x86_64 desktop), going back to x86_64 feels like a regression, both in performance and battery life.

This seems like a flawed premise.

Battery:

Yes, MacBook battery life is really good, but only when you're not doing CPU-intensive tasks. Browsing the web, watching Tube or Netflix, it's amazing. Once you're compiling a bunch of stuff the battery performance tanks and seems just like any other notebook computer.

CPU: Intel Mac performance was horrible, M* is terrific. And so are the latest from AMD Ryzen.

Regardless, FreeBSD is a fantastic OS in so many ways!

[throawayonthe]

Definitely true that the battery life is not at all inherent to arm, but "Once you're compiling a bunch of stuff the battery performance tanks and seems just like any other notebook computer" is not that true i think, apple silicon is still fairly power efficient even at full throttle compared to most x86 chips (though again yes the latest mobile amd chips are catching up)